Too fat to fly

[loobielousplaits]

Is anyone/has anyone watched this?

It's a documentary about massively obese people being interviewed about being taken off flights/too fat to flight.

While I absolutely agree it's a 'fat shaming' programme - I can't agree with some of the comments from the interviewees that have complained they had to leave the plane due to an armrest not being able to go down - a woman wasn't able to visit the toilet, another who couldn't understand why someone would be offended that half their seat was taken up by overspill - a 32 st man was offended that he was asked to leave the aircraft because he couldn't safely fit in the seat and should have paid for two - pilot decided he wasn't safe to fly.

I'm torn - I absolutely understand weight is a huge issue (I was anorexic in my teens) and it is not easy to control your weight but come on - seriously? You cannot expect to be OK to fly if your weight affects health and safety and you can't fit safely in a seat

If you can’t fit in the seat, you can’t fly. Why should other people suffer for a fat persons lifestyle choices? Selfishness.

I would kick up such an almighty fuss if I had a fat personality squashing me on a flight. I have autism, it’s hard enough being cramped into a confined space with being squashed by someone that can’t fit in their own seat properly. the stress of that would send me over the edge. It would be nice to if these obese people actually considered that other people on the plane might have difficulties of their own without having to take on theirs too

And again, what a peach you are.

@TheRumour that’s a fair point. I do think it’s frustrating that sometimes people tend to take a very reasonable point - namely that it is unfair for people to have their very costly limited space encroached upon very uncomfortably - and escalate it into frothing with disgust at fat people more generally. I don’t resent people for being fat, I resent anyone who encroaches upon my personal space and causes me suffering, regardless of the reason, or the extent to which it is the other person’s fault.

@BlooShampoo

This exactly.

In the article I posted earlier up thread, the man on the flight who had purposely booked an aisle seat and early boarding, as well as researching the airlines policy on booking two seats, was first asked to move to an inappropriate seat and then asked to leave.

From my interpretation of the article, no one was happy to swap or change seats.

He was humiliated because he was fat. He was unsupported because of some of the attitudes demonstrated on this thread. It is heartbreaking really.

There's so much horrible and completely undisguised fatphobia on this thread. People seem to think being fat is a moral failing, it's bloody not!
Make airline seats bigger for God's sake. People are getting bigger whether you like it or not. Around 98% weight loss attempts fail in the long run anyway so simply judgmentally telling people to 'lose weight' doesn't help.
People are fat for lots of reasons, many of which are out of their control, being poorer for example. Sure, let's punish and shame people into changing 🤔 fatphobia seems to be an area where people can say whatever they like about people.

I always book the aisle seat so I can spread myself into the aisle and stretch my legs out whoever is in the middle and window seats and so I can get out to go to the loo quite easily. I have never been next to someone so large they spill into my seat probably because I am mostly travelling with al oad of my own children who when little certainly had no sense of boundaries and would often want most of my seat or big cuddles for 5 hours and the like. I think I'd take a fat person over a toddler any day.

fatty snacks and alcohol throughout the flight is the only bit about flying that I dont hate

I think that they should purchase two seats, as it is not fair on people sitting next to them, if they encroach onto their limited space. The pilot was also talking about difficulty in flying or controlling the aircraft if there are many people who are large on the plane. It was good that these people's experiences on the programme spurred them to loose weight, they look really good for it. I was large, and many factors spurred me to loose weight, getting out of breath, not being able to fit in nice clothes, and also I was depressed about how I looked, and felt I had to do something about it.

Yes there are people who cannot help being large, as they have a medical condition, but for the most, it is eating less and exercising like myself.

Making seats bigger would mean less seats, hence more expensive tickets.
That's not a way forward too, is it...

Bigger seats for everyone is not the answer - it normalises obesity, and I wouldn't be happy to subside people's overeating and lifestyle choices.

*subsidise

Bigger seats translates into not only more expensive seats, but also a higher Co2 footprint (because the fixed portion of the plane is amortised over fewer people).

I'd prefer a larger seat, but not everyone would - the idea of a free market is that it caters to all.

Lellow flip your thread and write autism instead of fat - as in 'I would hate an autistic person sat next to me' etc. There would be an uproar. Before you say it's different - for many it is not due to physical and mental illness. I have explained my reasons but added to that I am also dyspraxic which makes intensive exercise nigh impossible as I fall and break bones (I swim and walk).

I would never discriminate against someone or be horrible. I see the person beneath the issue whether it be mental, physical or anything.

I hate this view that fat people don’t know they’re fat and we should all go round telling them because it’s OH SO HELPFUL and it’s infringing our human rights if we even get touched by icky fat people.
Fat People know they’re tucking fat and are usually mortified by having to constantly try and fit into a world that makes things so difficult for them. There’s this kind of evil satisfaction like well they’ve got what’s coming to them, but it’s all part of the dehumanising of fat people. Have some fucking empathy. Some awful unpleasantness on this thread.

Also if shame worked we would all be thin. Trust me.

It is possible to talk about buying an extra seat without bringing in shame isn’t it

After all it does take room from the person next to you and can be resolved - even airlines recognise this

Lellow flip your thread and write autism instead of fat - as in 'I would hate an autistic person sat next to me' etc. There would be an uproar

The difference is that autisticness does not encroach upon a neighbouring passenger’s seat, whereas the additional weight of someone who is too wide for a seat necessarily will. You’d have to define what it is about my autisticness that would make you uncomfortable.

It really, really isn’t anything personal. If I’m walking down the street I don’t judge an overweight passerby any more than a smaller one. But I absolutely do not accept encroachment upon my physical space/people inflicting suffering upon me from anyone of any size (see also: manspreaders with pointy knees, people who eat foul smelly food in enclosed environments, people with bad body odour, people who don’t use their “inside voice”...). I’m sure some people just deeply resent overweight people in particular, but that’s certainly not the case for me, nor, I suspect for a lot of others.

Pieceofpurplesky

So what would happen if there were seats A, B and C.

Person in seat A was obese and spilling onto seat B, but then the person who has booked seat B boards the plane. Person who has booked seat B is also obese and spills into seats A and C, they can't fit in the seat can they.

Then the person who has booked seat C boards. Where exactly are they supposed to sit?

I guess A & B would have to have seats A & C. Where is the person who booked and paid for seat C to go?

Fat People know they’re tucking fat and are usually mortified by having to constantly try and fit into a world that makes things so difficult for them.

Maybe they should do something about it then! I'm not paying extra to subsidise someone else's life choice if airlines were to go down the route of making all seats bigger! It's not my fault they've made the choice to eat so much!

It's not personal, it's uncomfortable and unfair to the person being spilled on.

I'm sure it's not nice for the obese person, but they know their size and should book 2 seats.

A couple of years ago I was on a plane and the girl behind me was autistic. She looked to be late teens/early 20s. She was clearly lower functioning than myself, kept screaming out, whacking her mum in the face and punching the window. I’ll admit, I was fucking terrified. I don’t like being touched and I spent the whole flight frightened to death that she would whack me on the head. And so no, I wouldn’t have chosen to sit next to that particular autistic person but you know, there is a difference there and that is that she didn’t CHOOSE to be autistic. Nothing SHE did to herself made her that way. So yeah, I’d find her more tolerable than sitting next to an obese person who was squashing me.

You have to be very very fat indeed to “struggle to fit into a world that makes life so difficult for you”
That would be an extreme, disabling level of obesity, and as several pp have said, they should be doing something about it instead of lamenting the fact that other people won’t make allowances and adjustments for them.

WTF has autism got to do with it?
My daughter is severely autistic, and as a result I don't take her on flights, because I wouldn't trust her in an enclosed space with other people. We do use public transport when it's unavoidable, and then I have to be extremely careful about timing our journey, where we sit, monitoring her mood so I can remove her as quickly as possible if she starts to disturb other people.
Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do to stop her being autistic, unlike obesity.

Or airlines could have some larger seats in their aircraft, but those needing them would have to pay more as they might take up space that would acommodate another seat.